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Proof before the editioning of version 3, state II in the second edition.
There are 11 additional impressions of this state in MoMA's Collection (Accession Numbers: 1311.2008, 1314.2008, 1315.2008, 1320.2012, 1321.2012, 1322.2012, 1323.2012, 1324.2012,1325.2012, 1326.2012, and 1327.2012). They are not illustrated due to their similarity to the impressions seen here.
State Changes and Additions:
Changes from version 2: composition transferred to new plate in photogravure (see Curatorial Remarks).
Background:
Bourgeois issued the first edition of “He Disappeared into Complete Silence” in 1947. (See cat. no. 1228.) At that time, while actively working in printmaking at the Atelier 17 workshop, she decided to create an illustrated book edition with hopes of making her work more widely known. As it turned out, the book was not a success and Bourgeois never completed the announced edition of 54 examples. It frustrated her that she had never finished the project and, much later, in the early 1980s, she began efforts to reissue the book.
Bourgeois could not locate the printing plates for the nine illustrations, so she set about producing new ones. She worked first, in 1984, with printer Deli Sacilotto, of Iris Editions, New York, to create photogravures using 1947 impressions of Plates 1, 3, and the “Alternative Plate.” Then, in 1990, she created engraved versions of Plates 2 and 6 with the assistance of Christian Guérin of Gravure, New York. First, though, in order to determine whether Guérin’s engraving was suitable, she asked him to engrave two similar compositions. (See “Atlantic Avenue: Transparent Houses” [cat. nos. 1054.1, .2, .3].)
In 1993, Bourgeois finally turned the project over to printer Felix Harlan of Harlan & Weaver, New York, with whom she had begun to work on a regular basis. Harlan would ultimately serve as both printer and coordinator of the second edition. He started out by making reprints of some of the 1983 photogravures created with Sacilotto, and the 1990 engravings created with Guérin. In addition, since by then Bourgeois had located three of the original printing plates from the 1940s (two versions of Plate 3 and one version of Plate 4), Harlan made reprints from those, but they were too distressed for use in a future edition. He also attempted to remake Plates 5, 8, and 9 in drypoint and/or etching. Finally, Bourgeois decided to work with photogravure as the starting-off point for all the compositions in the book, in order to keep the plates as close as possible to those of the 1947 edition. In 1995, new photogravure plates were made by Renaissance Press from photographs of the first edition in the New York Public Library (cat. no. 1228, Example 12). Working with Harlan, Bourgeois ultimately re-worked these photogravure plates with engraving, also adding aquatint, drypoint, scorper and watercolor additions in some instances.
The 1947 first edition of “He Disappeared into Complete Silence” includes “vintage” examples issued in 1947 or thereabouts, as well as “assembled” examples that Bourgeois compiled in the 1980s from prints and texts that remained in her possession. Some of the “assembled” examples, including the one in the New York Public Library, have ten plates rather than the standard nine plates. The tenth plate is a composition called “Alternative Plate” for cataloguing purposes. The second edition includes this “Alternative Plate,” as well as an entirely new eleventh plate titled, “Spider.”
Bourgeois worked intermittently on this project for over a decade, with the second edition appearing in 2005 as a benefit publication for the Department of Prints and Illustrated Books, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. In addition to eleven plates, the book includes text pages from 1947 that had remained with Bourgeois, as well as a new table of contents, foreword, and colophon. The housing was constructed to match that of the 1947 first edition.
Artist’s Remarks:
This structure is "open," with "a desire to be transparent... to be understood." Bourgeois contrasts it to the structures in the earlier plates, which are completely closed. "You must be transparent. You need to purge yourself... to say everything... that is healthy.... It is a move upward, toward expression." In later versions of the print there appears what Bourgeois characterizes as a "fire, raging inside.... There is danger, but everything is compartmentalized, so there is complete independence between the floors. It is accepted that things are off-balance. You can have a fire inside... an you can be at an angle... you will still be all right. Since you are transparent, people can read you and help you."
In talking generally about the whole suite of prints, Bourgeois said: "There is the presence of both closed and transparent moods. It is the swing of moods from night to morning. The distance between them is very great and there is a danger of cracking." (Quotes cited in Wye, Deborah and Carol Smith. "The Prints of Louise Bourgeois." New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1994, p. 82.)
Curatorial Remarks:
According to printer Paul Taylor, of Renaissance Press, the print workshop re-located from Hinsdale to Ashuelot, New Hampshire. On the colophon, the place is given as Hinsdale.
The Renaissance Press made photogravures from photographs of all ten plates in the New York Public Library’s example of “He Disappeared into Complete Silence” (cat. no. 1228, Example 12) to serve as the starting-off point for the second edition (see Background).
The plate mark seen here is not a true plate mark. It is the plate mark of the original engraving plate from which this photogravure was made. The photogravure plate size could not be determined because this sheet was trimmed down. In the other impression of version 3, state I, in the Evolving Composition Diagram below, the large photogravure plate was trimmed down around the image to mimic the size of the original engraving plate.
Plate 4, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence
1946-2005
First Version
Plate 4 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence Version 1 of 3, state I of II
1946-1947
Plate 4 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition Version 1 of 3, state I of II, variant
1946-1947; reprinted 1993
Plate 4 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition Version 1 of 3, state II of II
1993-1995
Second Version
Plate 4 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence Version 2 of 3, state I of VI
1947
Plate 4 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence Version 2 of 3, state II of VI
1946-1947
PublishedNOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTIONPlate 4 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 15) Version 2 of 3, state III of VI
1947
PublishedNOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTIONPlate 6 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 13) Version 2 of 3, state IV of VI
1947
PublishedNOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTIONPlate 4 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 14) Version 2 of 3, state V of VI
1947
Plate 4 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence Version 2 of 3, state VI of VI, variant
1946-1947
Plate 4 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence Version 2 of 3, state VI of VI, variant
1946-1947
Plate 4 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence Version 2 of 3, state VI of VI, variant
1946-1947
Published
Plate 4 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 1) Version 2 of 3, state VI of VI
1947
PublishedNOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTIONPlate 4 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 2) Version 2 of 3, state VI of VI
1947
PublishedNOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTIONPlate 4 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 3) Version 2 of 3, state VI of VI
1947
PublishedNOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTIONPlate 4 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 4) Version 2 of 3, state VI of VI
1947
PublishedNOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTIONPlate 4 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 5) Version 2 of 3, state VI of VI
1947
PublishedNOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTIONPlate 4 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 6) Version 2 of 3, state VI of VI
1947
PublishedNOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTIONPlate 4 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 7) Version 2 of 3, state VI of VI
1947
PublishedNOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTIONPlate 4 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 8) Version 2 of 3, state VI of VI
1947
PublishedNOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTIONPlate 4 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 9) Version 2 of 3, state VI of VI
1947
PublishedNOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTIONPlate 4 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 10) Version 2 of 3, state VI of VI
1947
PublishedNOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTIONPlate 4 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 11) Version 2 of 3, state VI of VI
1947
PublishedNOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTIONPlate 4 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 12) Version 2 of 3, state VI of VI
1947
PublishedNOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTIONPlate 4 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 16) Version 2 of 3, state VI of VI
1947
PublishedNOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTIONPlate 6 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 17) Version 2 of 3, state VI of VI
1947
PublishedNOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTIONPlate 4 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 18) Version 2 of 3, state VI of VI
1947
PublishedNOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTIONPlate 4 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 19) Version 2 of 3, state VI of VI
1947
Third Version
Plate 4 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition Version 3 of 3, state I of II
1995
Plate 4 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition Version 3 of 3, state I of II
1995
Plate 4 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition Version 3 of 3, state II of II
1995-2003
Plate 4 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition Version 3 of 3, state II of II, variant
1995-2003
Plate 4 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition Version 3 of 3, state II of II, variant
1995-2003
Published
Plate 4 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition Version 3 of 3, state II of II
2005
Illustrated Book 1947
He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first...
1947
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